Bridgework by Brown
THE budget, when it came, turned out to be a bridge over troubled deficits, to a design made familiar by Kenneth Clarke. The abutment on this side is built out of taxes and looks fairly solid. On the far side the bridge depends for its support on tight controls and spending cuts, and these look more like an architect's impression. Blue skies, bright paintwork, busy traffic, friend- ly ducks — we have all seen them and learned not to take them literally. Already Mr Brown has had to draw on the contin- gency reserves to prop this effort up. He could, I think, have done without the pledge that forced him to cut Value Added Tax on gas bills. The gasmen's sabre- toothed regulator, Clare Spottiswoode, had cut them already. All Mr Brown has done is to forfeit revenue, stimulate consumer spending, promote the use of a finite ener- gy resource and help to warm the world up. I am not sure that this was what he intended.
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